A thought on reducing waste for tofu packaging from Japan.

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For those of us desperate for sound and eager to be green.

Cheap.Small.70% recycled paperboard.

For the few things I still use batteries for, this would save me time, money and waste. Chargeable in any USB port, flip the USBCELL lid down and use as a standard AA battery over and over.

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We’ve featured Vincent Callebaut’s visionary green designs before and we are happy to highlight his current muse Lilypads.

Callebaut claims inspiration for his half aquatic, half terrestrial cities from the giant lilypads of the Amazonia Victoria Region and predictions of rising sea levels due to global warming, though perhaps some real life inspiration could equally have come from the floating markets of Kashmir or the gliding villages on the Tonle Sap, Cambodia.

In any case, I’m a little in love with the idea of seasons determined by the pull of oceanic currents.

Inside Beijing’s 2008 Olympic swimming complex.

Appropriately, some of the building’s most innovative features are its systems for handling water. Unlike most swimming pools, which send filter backwash water to the municipal wastewater systems, the Water Cube collects such gray water for treatment and returns it to the pool. The system substitutes rainwater collected from the roof for the small amount of gray water lost in the treatment process. The strategy lessens the burden of the building on Beijing’s wastewater infrastructure and makes it less dependent on the city’s already constrained fresh-water supply. “The idea was to make it as self-sufficient as possible,” says Carfrae.

Read more about this fascinating building’s passive heat systems, bubble physics and rad ventilation systems.

One of the great American visionaries of the twentieth century, R. Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983) endeavored to see what he, a single individual, might do to benefit the largest segment of humanity while consuming the minimum of the earth’s resources. Doing “more with less” was Fuller’s credo. He described himself as a “comprehensive anticipatory design scientist,” setting forth to solve the escalating challenges that faced humanity before they became insurmountable…”

Read more about Buckminster Fuller on display at the Whitney exhibit.

“Architect Vincent Callebaut’s latest project uses green technologies and systems that are more than just examples of sustainable design; the structure actually improves the environment just by sitting there.

Callebaut’s prototype project, being built in Paris, is covered with 250 square meters of solar photovoltaic panels and coated in titanium dioxide (TiO2). The PV system produces electrical energy for the building, with the TiO2 coating working as a catalytic system to clean the air. The TiO2 works with ultraviolet radiation to interact with particulates in the air, break down organics and reduce airborn pollutants and contaminants.”

Read more at green geek or Callebaut’s site.

Toyko really lags behind major metropolises in the amount of public space allocated as “green space,” clocking in at a shockingly low 4% (NYC = 12%) . Citizens of Toyko are expressing their desire for more green by creating flowerpot gardens large and small and, in the process, redefining public space as something collectively owned and maintained. Tremendous move, Toykoites.

Check out PingMag for more neat photos.